South Korea: Ex-Police Chief Jailed for Defaming Deceased President

A former South Korean police chief was sentenced to a 10-month in jail[1] for falsely accusing the deceased former president of maintaining slush fund bank accounts under assumed names. The court's decision was met with praise, but some net users complained that the ruling was made too late after plenty of damage had already been done.

Cho said he got the information on the secret accounts from anonymous source, a claim that he failed to verify until now and that many consider to be a groundless conjecture[8] [ko]. The Seoul Central District Court convicted Cho of posthumously defaming the ex-president and took him to court custody on February 20, 2013.

@histopian[10]: Ex-police chief Cho Hyun-oh, who claimed “the reason (ex-president) Roh Moo-hyun killed himself is because false-name bank accounts with huge amounts of slush funds were revealed” is being taken into court custody. However, there are so many people out there still trusting his claims. Those people, regardless of this (newly found) truth, choose to believe what they want to believe.

The reformist Roh's death[11] is remembered as one of the most tragic events in recent Korean history, and resulted in intense conflicts and divisions between right-wing groups and progressives.

@100hyeryun[12]: Judge Lee Sung-ho who took Cho Hyun-ho into court custody reasoned: “the accused's (Cho) remarks have misled people to assume (that there must be) ‘something fishy going on around the ex-president’ and such doubts have given birth to a huge divide between pro-Roh people and critics of Roh.” His explanation hit the nail right on the head.

Many net users, while supporting such ruling, questioned why it took so long. Comparing it with the unprecedentedly quick arrest of pastor Jo [13][ko] under charges of spreading false rumors against then President-elect Park Geun-hye[14], journalist @welovehani[15]wrote[16] [ko]:

@welovehani[16]: It took only a day to arrest the pastor who was convicted of spreading false rumors about Park Geun-hye. However, with Cho Hyun-oh, who was convicted of spreading false rumors about Roh, it took a year and nine months to finally bring him to trial.

Although many cheered the news of Cho's arrest, a minority of Twitter users debated whether arresting someone for defamation was an appropriate form of punishment in the first place:

@sungsooh[17]: There is no doubt that it is highly irresponsible for Cho, a high-profile government official, to make such remarks. And considering how he acted later, we can conclude his remarks were made with malicious intent. Following the libel/defamation laws, he is obviously guilty of the charges, but I cant agree on the punishment of arresting someone for defamation.